Education Week contributing writer Bryan Toporek brings you K-12 sports coverage that reaches far beyond box scores. He has written about education for Education Week and Education Week Teacher, high school sports for the Falls Church News-Press in Virginia, and is currently a Quality Editor for Bleacher Report.

In 2003, 14.8 percent of children ages 10 to 17 were considered obese, and an additional 15.7 percent were considered overweight (30.5 percent total), according to that year's survey. The percentage of obese children rocketed up in 2007 to 16.4 percent, although the percentage of overweight children slightly dropped to 15.3 percent.

In the most recent survey, which drew upon more than 95,000 telephone surveys completed nationally during 2010-12, the percentage of obese children across the U.S. shrank to 15.7 percent, while the percentage of overweight children actually rose slightly (15.6 percent). In total, the percentage of overweight or obese children fell from 31.7 percent in 2007 to 31.3 percent in 2011-12.

Here, you'll see the overweight and obesity rates over the past decade in visual form (the red line is for obese children, the green is for overweight):

The states with the most overweight or obese children changed over the past five years. In 2007, the 10 states with the highest rates were: Mississippi (44.4 percent), Arkansas (37.5 percent), Georgia (37.3 percent), Kentucky (37.1 percent), Tennessee (36.5 percent), Alabama (36.1 percent), Louisiana (35.9 percent), West Virginia (35.5 percent), the District of Columbia (35.4 percent) and Illinois (34.9 percent).

In 2011-12, six states made a repeat appearance on the top-10 offenders list. In order, the 10 states with the highest rates of either overweight or obese children were: Louisiana (39.8 percent), Mississippi (39.7 percent), South Carolina (39.2 percent), Arizona (36.7 percent), Texas (36.6 percent), North Dakota (35.8 percent), Kentucky (35.7 percent), Alabama (35.0 percent), D.C. (35.0 percent), and Georgia (35.0 percent). South Carolina, Arizona, Texas and North Dakota were all new to the top 10.

On the plus side, more youths ages 6 to 17 reported participating in at least 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) 4-6 days a week than ever before. In 2003, 33 percent of youths reported 4-6 days of exercise in the past week and 26 percent exercised every day. Four years later, 34.4 percent of youths participated in MVPA 4-6 days in the past week and 29.9 percent exercised every day.

Fast-forward to 2011-12, and 37.7 percent of children ages 6-17 participated in 4-6 days of MVPA within the week before they were surveyed. The percentage of children who exercised every day dipped slightly from 2007, falling to 28 percent.

Here's that in graph form, for the visual learners out there (the red bars represent the percentage of children ages 6-17 who exercised 4-6 days per week; the green bars represent children who exercised every day):

What can schools do to prevent childhood obesity from spreading even further? Plenty, according to multiple reports.

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